GOACAN as part of its ‘Making Democracy Work’ Campaign has launched an initiative to mobilise young voters to attend and participate in the Gram Sabha meetings of the Village Panchayats of Goa. In a first effort GOACAN volunteers from various Civic and Consumers Forums will approach Sarpanchas to issue Welcome Letters to all youth from the village who receive their Voter Cards as new young voters.
This initiative being launched by GOACAN on 25th January National Voters Day will focus on distributing draft Welcome Letters to the Sarpanch of the Village Panchayats with an appeal to issue the same to all the new young voters.
The welcome letter informs the youth that being on the electoral roll as a voter automatically makes them members of the Village Panchayat Gram Sabha. This entitles the youth to attend and actively participate in the 4 Ordinary Meetings of the Gram Sabha being held in April, July, October and January during the financial year April 2021 to March 2022. The youth can also attend and actively participate in the 4 Special Meetings of the Gram Sabha being held on 15th August, 2nd October, 19th December and 26th January.
The letter seeks the assistance of the new young voter in the activities of the various Committees of the Village Panchayat on subjects like Road Safety & Traffic Management, Biodiversity Management and Health & Sanitation among others.
The letter also encourages the new young voter to assist the Village Development Committee (VDC) of the Village Panchayat which has the challenging task of preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP). Lastly the letter reminds the new voters that the youth of today are the future of the village and appeals to them to extend whatever assistance they can provide especially their knowledge, skills and time for the development and progress of their village.
This 60 day initiative of GOACAN will carry on till the convening of the first Gram Sabha meeting in April for 2021-22 and will monitor the attendance & participation of the new young voters in various village panchayats in the 12 Talukas of Goa.
